Brett Favre did not leave things on the best of terms with the Green Bay Packers or their fans. But, for a variety of reasons, everyone involved is working towards letting those bygones be bygone. They'll all be a lot happier, and a lot lighter, when the peace is finally made, and Favre's number four is finally retired.

Jason Collins' historic announcement has been received with happy shrugs and praise, which is a very good thing. But it's not the end of anything, not nearly, and we shouldn't be too satisfied with this admittedly satisfying reception.

Steve Novak is not quite like any other NBA player. This is what has made his career so strange and mostly undistinguished, but also the thing that makes him so confoundingly, deceptively and inspiringly like the rest of us.

The Tracy McGrady who received a hero's welcome at China's Qingdao Liuting Airport was not the player that has slipped into itinerant bench-player status in the NBA over the last few seasons. He wasn't the superstar who lit up the league in the early part of the last decade, either, of course. This T-Mac was something altogether different: a different type of star in a different type of basketball culture, and possibly China's next great basketball mogul.